Posted on No Comments on New recorded webinar: Accessibility in Canvas

New recorded webinar: Accessibility in Canvas

Hello Owls,

Happy Friday. In the past few weeks I have hosted two live webinars on Accessibility in Canvas. While attendance was low, I understand that the timing during the first two weeks of the semester was not quite right! Anyway, the recording is live in the Learning Environments Recorded Trainings Kaltura page. Even if you do not work in Canvas much, the first 25 minutes of the recording goes over valuable accessibility content!

The forty minute webinar covers:

  • Understanding basic accessibility principles
  • Recognizing common barriers to digital access
  • Showing UDOIT tool in Canvas
  • Identifying opportunities to utilize UDOIT.

The UDOIT tool in Canvas is on the newer side to Rice. Are you working in Canvas and would like to try it out? Check out the UDOIT Cloud blog post to learn how to add it to your course.

Posted on No Comments on Canvas Accessibility Easier Than Ever With UDOIT Cloud

Canvas Accessibility Easier Than Ever With UDOIT Cloud

The Learning Environments team is excited to announce that UDOIT Cloud is now available to all instructors in Canvas!

What is UDOIT Cloud?

UDOIT Cloud is an LTI that makes it easy to identify and fix accessibility issues across your entire Canvas course, all from one convenient location. Rather than running an accessibility check on each individual content area, UDOIT Cloud scans your course and produces a report of all accessibility issues. UDOIT Cloud provides explanations, learning resources, and tools for reviewing and fixing issues. See the Access @ Rice website or more information about UDOIT Cloud.

Note: UDOIT Cloud is not a “magic bullet” that automatically fixes accessibility deficiencies for you. Instead, it is an educational tool for helping you improve your own accessibility design practices over time. For more information about accessible design in Canvas, see Rice’s Accessibility Course Guides.

Add UDOIT Cloud to the Canvas Course Navigation

  1. Select the “Settings” link in the Canvas course navigation menu.
  2. Select the “Navigation” tab.
  3. Enable “UDOIT Cloud.” Click and drag it from lower box to upper box or use the ellipsis.
  4. Click “Save.”

Start a UDOIT Scan

  1. Select the “UDOIT Cloud” link in the course navigation menu to start the scan.
  2. On the following UDOIT Cloud “Home” screen, review all issues categorized as either Errors or Suggestions.
    • For an explanation of all issues, click the ellipsis (three dots) in the top right corner, select “About,” then select “What does UDOIT look for?” in the bottom of the pop-up.
  3. Select an error or use the “Ways to Get Started” filters on the right side of the screen.
    • Example: No Table Headers Found.

Fix Issues

  1. After selecting an error or suggestion, you will find a list of all related issues.
    • Note that you are now under the “UFIXIT” tab.
  2. Select one of the issues from the list to open a pop-up window with information and tools related to the issue.
  3. In the pop-up, you will find the following:
    • a brief explanation of the issue.
    • a preview window with the option to view as HTML.
    • a link to open and view the issue in context on the Canvas page.
    • in many cases, tools for fixing the issue.
  4. In the example of a table without headers, determine if the top row, first column, or both should be marked as headers and select the corresponding option to apply a fix.
  5. Important: Select the “Save” button after applying the appropriate fix.
  6. If the issue turns out to be a false positive, check the box labeled “Mark as Resolved.”
  7. Select the “Next Issue” button to move to the next issue.
  8. Repeat these steps until all issues are fixed or marked as reviewed.

Note: Some issues need to be manually fixed by editing the Canvas page directly. After applying the manual fix and saving the changes, you can run a new scan by clicking the UDOIT Cloud link in the course navigation menu again.

Review Files

UDOIT Cloud does not check the accessibility of external files. UDOIT alerts you of course files and gives you information and resources about manually checking and fixing them.

Note: By the last quarter of 2022, UDOIT expects to release a feature that generates alternative file formats like the Blackboard Ally File Transformer.

  1. Click the “Review Files” tab in UDOIT Cloud to see a list of all files in the course.
    • Use the Filter button in the top right to view files by type like PDF and MS Word.
  2. Click on a filename or click the “Review” button to see the details of a particular file.
  3. In the pop-up, you can download the file or view it in the LMS (Canvas).
  4. Recommended: Download and review the file in its native application to ensure that it is accessible.
  5. After saving changes to the file, use the “Replace File” tool in UDOIT Cloud to upload a more accessible version to Canvas.
  6. Save your changes by checking the box labeled “Mark as Reviewed.”

Check for Closed Captions

UDOIT Cloud cannot check the accuracy of closed captions, but it can identify if captions were auto-generated or missing in the following three platforms:

Note: If your course contains videos from any other platform, UDOIT Cloud will generate the error “No Closed Captions Found.” Please review these videos in a similar way as described below.

Rather than manually searching through your course for videos, use UDOIT filter tools to aggregate a single list of videos for you to review.

  1. From the UDOIT Cloud “Home” tab, select the radio button labeled “By issue type” in the right-hand “Ways to Get Started” menu.
  2. Use the dropdown menu labeled “By issue type,” select “Closed Captions Were Auto-Generated,” then select the “Get Started button.”
  3. In the following pop-up, use the preview window or select the link to view the video on the Canvas page.
  4. If the captions need to be edited for accuracy, go to the video platform and make the needed edits.
  1. After confirming that captions are accurate, check the box labeled “Mark as resolved.”

Additional Resources

For more information about using UDOIT Cloud, see Rice’s UDOIT Training for Instructors.

Posted on No Comments on Universal Design for Learning in Canvas

Universal Design for Learning in Canvas

Back in February, Dr. Amanda Barnett joined me for a co-presentation about Universal Design for Learning in Canvas.

It’s taken a little longer than expected, but we’re happy to announce that the recorded workshop has finally been edited and available to share. The recording includes accurate closed captions, as well as a searchable text transcript.

We start with an overview of UDL and talk about the underlying principles and guidelines. We discuss the overlap between UDL, accessibility, usability, and inclusiveness and demonstrate some practical ways to use the framework of UDL in your online and hybrid courses on Canvas.

Check out the following links to view the recording and access the PowerPoint presentation with several great resource links.
Note, right click the links in the presentation and choose open link, or press command and click to open. Alternatively, download the presentation.

Posted on No Comments on Digital Accessibility Workshops for Everyone

Digital Accessibility Workshops for Everyone

Is February too late to make a New Year’s resolution? We don’t think so and we’ve got the perfect idea for you:
Make 2022 the year you commit 2 digital accessibility!
We can help you stick to that resolution with a new series of accessibility workshops throughout the month of February.
We’re even trying something a little different this time.

We’ve organized workshops into four main tracks based on different roles including web content, documents, communications, and teaching. We also have Accessibility Office Hours each Friday at 11 AM. Of course, there’s overlap in all of these areas, so feel free to sign up for any sessions that are relevant to your role.

If you prefer to see all of the training events in a monthly calendar, check out the Canvas Training Center.

Start Here

No matter what your role might be, or what track(s) you choose, everyone can get started by attending one of two workshops to learn some basic accessibility design principles.

How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles

    • Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    • Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)

We also recommend that you attend one of the workshops about the Digital Information Accessibility Policy if you can. Read on for more info about training tracks and signing up for sessions.

* indicates repeated session.

Training Tracks

Web Content Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
  • Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Check Your Website Content for Accessibility.
    Session 1: Tue. 2/01/22 @ 10 AM (closed)
    Session2: Wed. 2/23/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    .
  • Better Video Captions, Wed. 3/02/22 @ 3 PM.

Documents Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials, Mon. 2/07/22, 10 AM (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/15/22 @10 AM (closed)
    .
  • InDesign Accessibility Essentials, Wed. 2/16/22 @ 3 PM (closed)

Communication Track

Teaching Track

  • Get to Know Rice’s Digital Accessibility Policy.
    Session 1: Mon. 1/31/22 @ 3 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Mon. 2/21/22 @ 10 AM* (closed)
    .
  • How 2 A11y: Basic Accessibility Design Principles.
    Session 1: Wed. 2/02/22 @ 2 PM (closed)
    Session 2: Tue. 2/22/22 @ 2 PM* (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials, Mon. 2/07/22, 10 AM (closed)
    .
  • PDF and Acrobat Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/08/22 @ 3 PM. (closed)
    .
  • Universal Design in Canvas, Wed. 2.09, @ 10 AM. (closed)
    .
  • Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials, Tue. 2/15/22 @10 AM (closed)
    .
  • Better Video Captions, Wed. 3/02/22 @ 3 PM.

A11y Office Hour at 11 AM

A11y means Accessibility. Join me Fridays between 11 AM and noon to talk about anything related to digital a11y. Sign up for a session.

  • Fri. 2/04/22 @ 11 AM (closed)
  • Fri. 2/11/22, No session, out for conference.
  • Fri. 2/18/22 @ 11 AM
  • Fri. 2/25/22 @ 11 AM
  • Fri. 3/04/22 @ 11 AM
Posted on No Comments on Happy 2022! Starting with a Quick Look Back.

Happy 2022! Starting with a Quick Look Back.

Well, we made it. It’s already a new year somehow and today is the first day of the spring 2022 semester.

I’ve been wrapping up some projects and organizing data from all of our 2021 accessibility workshops. Looking over the numbers, I can’t help but feel a strong since of pride about the work we’re all doing together to make Rice a more inclusive and accessible place for everyone, inside and outside of the hedges.

Here are some numbers for you:

We hosted a total of 60 accessibility workshops over five different months on about 15 unique topics. That averaged out to about three one-hour workshops per week during those five months of training.

All workshops were hosted remotely on Zoom to help keep us safe during this second year of the pandemic. Fortunately, this enabled us to start producing a pretty nice little library of training videos. Check out our Kaltura Media Gallery. We’re really optimistic about the possibility of bringing back some in-person learning opportunities this year (fingers crossed).

We had a total of 242 registrations from 84 unique individuals across more than 50 Rice departments. That averages to just slightly less than three workshops per person, so we’re feeling pretty good about how accessibility knowledge continues to grow within our community. Keep it up, y’all!

The most popular workshops were:

  1. Basic Accessible Design Principles (a.k.a. Design with WCAG) with 38 registrations.
  2. Acrobat and PDF Accessibility Essentials with 34 registrations.
  3. Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials with 29 registrations.
  4. A tie between Better Video Captions and Accessible PDF Forms with 21 registrations each.

We are planning a new month of accessibility workshops for February 2022, so stay tuned for our announcements about that series. Of course, if there are any workshop topics you’d like to see us cover, or if there are any you’re hoping we’ll repeat again, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, let us know what delivery modes you prefer (i.e. remote live, in-person, asynchronous).

Let’s make 2022 the best year yet for expanding access, diversity, and inclusion at Rice University and beyond. Cheers!

Posted on No Comments on New Workshop Recording: Social Media Accessibility Tips

New Workshop Recording: Social Media Accessibility Tips

What a fun-filled month of accessibility workshops October turned out to be! Thank you for your interest and attendance.

If you were unable to be there for a live session, never fear, you can check out all of our accessibility recordings on the Learning Environments Media Gallery, including our latest workshop about Social Media Accessibility. In this recording, we discuss important things to consider when writing text and sharing all kinds of content like links, hashtags, emojis, images, and videos.

Also, check out the companion PowerPoint Presentation, which is loaded with helpful resources for creating accessible posts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more. Note that you should be in presentation view to activate links, or right click links and choose “Open Link.”

Update: The Social Media Accessibility workshop recording now has 98%-99% accurate closed captions as of 11/02/21.

 

Posted on No Comments on October 2021 Accessibility Workshop Schedule

October 2021 Accessibility Workshop Schedule

October is here and so is the fall-like weather! Objectively the best time of year 🎃. To keep the good vibes flowing and the grim specter of inaccessibility away, we’ve scheduled a series of workshops so good…IT’S SCARY (lightning crash)! Okay, that’s enough of the Halloween schtick.

Check out our accessibility schedule in the following list. Select the links to sign up for a one-hour Zoom session. All sessions start at 11:00 AM unless otherwise noted. Workshops are limited to Rice faculty, staff, and students, so be sure to include your Rice NetID when signing up. Don’t forget to also check out our full calendar of Teaching and Scholarly Learning events for sessions about Canvas.

Posted on No Comments on Use Automatic Captions Across Different Video Platforms

Use Automatic Captions Across Different Video Platforms

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) captions can be a crucial starting point for improving the accessibility of your video content; especially if you lack the budget to outsource it to vendors, or the time/resources to manually transcribe every word of your (extensive) back catalog. I say “starting point” because even the best ASR technologies are only about 75% to 85% accurate. So it’s up to you to manually correct captions to get them as close to error-free as possible, as recommended by DCMP.

It wasn’t all that long ago when ASR captions seemed like a rare and coveted feature of many video platforms, sometimes available at a premium, but generally scarce. As the most popular video platform, YouTube has applied ASR captions to content for years.  In fact, my previous captioning strategy was 1) upload videos to YouTube, 2) edit the ASR captions, 3) export the edited caption file, and 4) import the caption file into another video platform.

While many additional video platforms now include ASR captions as a standard service, some popular ones like Vimeo still lack this important feature. In cases like these, I still recommend YouTube as a readily available source for generating ASR captions and exporting edited files. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve personally relied on this strategy. In the past couple of years it seems there have been a few changes, the biggest of which is that the exported caption file is only available from YouTube in .sbv format. In the past, you could choose from a variety of widely used formats like .srt and .vtt, but more on this later in the post. I re-familiarized myself with this process, so I’m sharing what I found here.

Edit and Download Captions from YouTube

If you don’t already have one, follow YouTube’s instructions to upload a video. I recommend setting it to unlisted or private, at least until you’ve got everything edited. Also, you will probably have to wait 5 to 10 minutes before the automatic captions become available to edit.

  1. Start by going to your YouTube Studio dashboard, then click on the “Subtitle” link in the left-hand navigation menu.
    .
  2. On the Channel Subtitles page, click on the video you’d like to edit.
    .
  3. On the Video Subtitles page, in the automatic caption row, click the button text labeled “DUPLICATE AND EDIT.”
    .
  4. In the open caption editor dialogue, click the button text labeled “EDIT TIMINGS.” Now play through your video and inspect the text containers to the left of the video player, making edits when needed.
    .
  5. Periodically click the “Save Draft” button near the top right corner of the editor dialogue until you are finished.
    .
  6. To export the edited caption file, click the “Options” ellipses (…) just to the right of the “EDIT AS TEXT” button, and just above the frame timing box and select “Download subtitles” from the listbox. The captions.sbv file will automatically download to your computer.

Convert Captions to .srt or .vtt Formats

Unlike YouTube, other video platforms like Vimeo and Kaltura use caption formats like .srt or .vtt. Converting caption files is easy with the Free Caption Format Converter Tool from 3Play Media, one of the most trusted captioning vendors in the market.

  1. Go to the 3Play Caption Format Converter.
    .
  2. Open the captions.sbv file you exported from YouTube in a plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.
    .
  3. Next, copy all of the text in the captions.sbv file.
    • Windows: Ctrl + A to select all, then Ctrl + C to copy.
    • Mac: command + A to select all, then command + C to copy.
      .
  4. Paste the copied text into the text box labeled “Paste Your SRT/SBV File.”
    • Windows: Ctrl + P to paste.
    • Mac: command + P to copy.
      .
  5. Select SRT or WebVTT as the Output Format, then click the “CONVERT MY FILE” button. The file will download to your computer.

Import the Converted Caption File to Vimeo

If you don’t already have one, follow Vimeo’s instructions to upload a video. I recommend setting it to private, at least until you’ve got everything edited.

  1. Start by going to your Vimeo Video Manager.
    .
  2. Click the video to which you’d like to add captions.
    .
  3. On the following video page, click the “Advanced” button in the right-hand sidebar.
    .
  4. On the video settings page, click the “Distribution” link in the left-hand navigation menu, then click the “Subtitles” link.
    .
  5. In the “Captions and Subtitles” heading, near the “My Uploads” heading, click the  “New File” + button.
    .
  6. In the open menu, choose the language of your captions, then choose “Captions” in the “Type” field, then click the “Choose file” button.
    .
  7. Select the converted .srt or .vtt file from the files on your computer, then when the upload is complete, click to toggle the captions ON and click the “Save” button.
    .
  8. Return to your Vimeo video manger and click the video to view it in a video player. You should now see a CC button, which you can click to turn captions on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on No Comments on May 2021 Workshop Rewind

May 2021 Workshop Rewind

Well, it’s somehow already Memorial Day weekend, which means it’s pretty much June! We will roll out a whole new schedule of workshops and training sessions soon, so stay tuned.

As for May, we hosted some awesome virtual sessions, which resulted in two new recordings, so it was a great success. Check out the links below to view the edited recordings as well as the workshop outlines/agendas.

One thing that’s been on my to-do list is to create a new section of the Access @ Rice website where you can find archived workshop recordings and workshop handouts. Until then, you can view our previously recorded workshops here.

Please contact me at a11y@rice.edu if you have any questions or comments, and let me know if there are any workshop topics you’d like me to tackle in the future. Also, if you ever encounter accessibility barriers with any of Rice University’s digital information, please contact the accessibility steering committee at access@rice.edu and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Posted on No Comments on May 2021 Accessibility Workshops

May 2021 Accessibility Workshops

It’s been a little while since my last update here. The good news is that a lot of exciting updates have been taking place behind the scenes in that time, including some improvements to the rice.edu website. More on that in a future post.

There are some exciting accessibility learning opportunities lined up for the month of May, including an interactive workshop on Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).

There are multiple repeated sessions covering the basic principles of accessible design, so take your pick. There are also sessions on favorite topics like Adobe Acrobat, PDF forms, Microsfoft Word and PowerPoint, and video captions. You’ve also been asking us to add workshops on Adobe Indesign. We listened and we’ve scheduled two!

Check out the full schedule below. Register for each session by clicking the link title.

Date Title/Registration Link Description
Wed. 5/05 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Thu. 5/06 Microsoft Word Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply the basic design principles to your Word Documents.
Fri. 5/07 Acrobat & PDF Accessibility Essentials Learn the basics of creating, cleaning up, and remediating accessible PDFs in Adobe Acrobat.
Mon. 5/10 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Wed. 5/12 InDesign Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply basic accessible design principles to your InDesign layouts and export options for best result to PDF.
Thu. 5/13 Accessible PDF Forms Learn to design fillable forms for PDF format with emphasis on tags, form field labels, descriptions, and tab order.
Fri. 5/14 Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials We will discuss slide layouts, reading order, slide titles, alternative text, font sizes, and more.
Mon. 5/17 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Tue. 5/18 InDesign Accessibility Essentials Learn how to apply basic accessible design principles to your InDesign layouts and export options for best result to PDF.
Thu. 5/20 Fix Your Web Content with the Pros (GAAD 2021) Learn how to scan your webpages and documents, identify issues, and remove common accessibility barriers. Think of it like a guided hackathon to improve access for all.
Mon. 5/24 Basic Accessible Design Principles Learn the basic principles and how to apply them to your own digital designs.
Wed. 5/26 Better Captions for Everyone An overview of options for live (synchronous) and recorded (asynchronous) closed captions including Zoom, Kaltura, and other options.